Machine Vision and Industrial Robots: A Powerful Team
Reprinted by Permission from Robotics World Magazine
(Posted 10/05/2004)
While robotic assembly applications have increased in both number and complexity over the years, a large number of applications have been passed over due to technology.

Cooperating squads of robotic vehicles may some day be employed for tasks such as fighting forest fires, cleaning up oil spills, delivering and distributing supplies to remote field operations and conducting a variety of military missions. Control and coordination of groups or squads of robots has thus

In response to the Department of Defense's Joint Program Office for Unmanned Ground Vehicles' request to develop a prototype of a mobile robotic test bed platform for military surveillance and reconnaissance missions, Sandia's Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center (ISRC) developed SARGE (the Surveillance And Reconnaissance Ground Equipment robot). This prototype

When conditions are too dangerous for people after mine disasters, robots can go safely where people cannot to locate survivors, check the atmosphere, or assess the condition of the mine. That is the premise of the US Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA); and

Problem:
InteSeys Technologies, Inc, molds a wide range of parts for automotive applications as well as others. InteSeys has been molding large, complex 100-pin connectors for a popular U.S.-made automobile for four years. Before using a servo robot in this application, two operators were required to load six-

The US Army is responsible for coordinating munition demilitarization for all the Services. More than 300,000 tons of rounds are currently in stockpile waiting to be demilled, some dating back to World War II. This amount is increasing by about 70,000 to 100,000 tons per year. Currently,

Many of the thousands of nuclear weapons which are being retired by the United States contain components known as explosive gas generators. After these components are removed from nuclear weapons, they must be demilitarized. Traditionally, demilitarization has been handled by igniting generators at a burning ground, but

Problem:
The manual assembly of fiber optic pigtails requires operators to work with super small parts that have sub-micron assembly tolerances. Improper component assembly causes misalignment of the fiber cables which greatly reduces the output capacity of the finished connectors. Traditional first pass yields from